Link to February 19 Buffalo News article.

Excerpt: Boarded-up buildings are common sights in many Buffalo neighborhoods.

But not on Niagara Square, across the street from City Hall.

The board-ups are usually burned out homes or decaying structures — not one of downtown's most recognizable icons.

Work crews began installing plywood sheets over windows on the first floor of the recently mothballed Statler Towers on Friday. Some pedestrians did double takes as crews hauled large panels of wood from a nearby truck and proceeded to board up the facade.

"It looks pretty tacky," said Sharon Hunter. "It's all very sad."

Canonsburg, PA: Chocolate Magnates Sweeten Library Pot

Link to January 14 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette report, "Ground broken for long-awaited public library in Canonsburg".

Excerpt: Warm hearts bested freezing temperatures and a half-foot of snow as two dozen braved the elements Friday to attend the groundbreaking for a $5 million Canonsburg library, slated to open in early 2011.

The proposed two-story building at Jefferson Avenue and Murdock Street has been on the planning board for at least 10 years, after the library board decided a new facility was needed to replace the crowded one in the borough building on East Pike Street.

But it wasn't until Canonsburg chocolate magnates Frank and Athena Sarris [OMG, a peanut butter meltaway pie!] donated $1.5 million for the library's construction that the project picked up steam. Another $1 million earmarked by the state for construction plus an additional $100,000 in state money for land acquisition boosted the momentum to realizing the library board's long-sought goal.

Statler is ‘dead building,’ city panel told

Link to February 2 Buffalo News report.

Excerpt: The Statler Towers is a “dead building” that has a negative market value, a lawyer told Buffalo’s assessment review panel at a hearing Monday in City Hall.

Attorney Peter Allen Weinmann warned that if the city refuses to dramatically slash the assessed value of the Delaware Avenue building, it could further hinder efforts to develop the empty complex that towers over Niagara Square.

“The building is a shell — a ghost of its . . . past,” Weinmann told the Board of Assessment Review, a five-member panel of citizen volunteers that considers assessment challenges.

The Wolfgang & Weinmann law firm submitted documents urging the city to assign a negative value of nearly $12.2 million to the Statler. The 18-story landmark is currently assessed at $3.5 million.